Giles, Bolden And Allen: NBA Stock Dropping?

CBSSports.com has this piece up on five guys whose draft stock is supposedly dropping and three of them play for Duke: Harry Giles, Marques Bolden and Grayson Allen.

We’re not scouts so we aren’t qualified to say, but here’s what we think of each of them.

In the case of Giles, it’s a question of time. He’s just not 100% yet. Neither is Dennis Smith after his ACL surgery although Smith is much closer.

Every time we watch Giles we see something we haven’t seen before. If the NBA wants to take a pass this year that’s fine by us. He’s coming along as well as one could expect after sitting for so long.

As for Bolden? He’s obviously fallen behind and like Howard Megdal, we don’t know exactly why. What we saw of him before his injury was tantalizing. He’s big, he’s mobile and he works the backboards like a real center. There just aren’t many guys like that anymore. We know what we saw and we have no doubts about his ability. When he’s right, he’ll be a beast.

It’s worth mentioning that very few no what his injury was. Coach K gave a somewhat mysterious description, saying it could have happened in his sleep. That’s beyond our pay grade, but it’s hard to imagine that it’s bone or muscle or tendon if it could have happened in his sleep.

As for Allen, obviously he hurt his stock with his on-court behavior. But the guy who is reckless with his body, who defends like a maniac, who can run the court with anyone - it’s hard to believe he can’t find a place in the NBA. It won’t be as a point guard, but he has a lot of ability.

It wouldn’t bother us if any or all of these guys were back next season. They would get another season to make their case and Duke would certainly benefit.